MASWings hopeful

[David Mehra 0]

greetings folks,

 

i have been a regular visitor here at MalaysianWings forum, but never thought of registering myself or post any comments all this while.

 

i have flown here in the Borneos for half my life and presently flying for MASWings Sdn Bhd flying on the ATR72 fleet.

 

i have been asked by so many people with regards of the latest MASWings Pilot Recruitment drive in Kuching and Kinabalu so i thought i'd post my opinions in here (hopefully not too baised) for the sharing.

 

i will try to paint the picture so that most of it can be used by the future MASWings employees (tech crews specially), and i will be as fair as possible.

[Pieter C. 5]

Welcome to MW, David !

 

Good to hear you wanna share some MASwings news here...

 

Although not able to take a DHT flight this year, I hope to be able to make another one next year...

 

Flew BKI-MYY last year on the AT7: really enjoyed the service (even drop-down screens)...

[David Mehra 0]

ATR72 Direct Entry Captains (ATR72)

 

Basic Salary Range : RM9,500 - RM17,500

Productivity : RM90 per hour

Avg 75hrs a month.

 

If you are joining as DEC for your first time command, expect to be offered the RM9.5k basic salary. Even if you are an experienced Captain (Non Type Rated), you got to be smart and firm when you negotiate for your salary.

 

Note : make sure you sign the contract agreement before you start your type training (and sign for the type rating training bond) as there has been multiple cases where the pilot were duped into a lower than promised salary as per agreed during the interview (went into type training before signing the contract agrement). HR department is notoriously known for skimming off the wages of the Pilots.

 

 

 

 

DHC6 Direct Entry Co-Pilots (Second Officers)

 

Basic Salary : RM2,900 - RM6,000

Productivity : RM60 per hour

Avg 50hrs a month

 

If you are fresh off from flying school, this is the only position they are going to offer you these days. There are no more Direct into the ATR72 Fleet for non rated co-pilots.

 

Your basic salary would be RM2,900 until you hit 1,000hrs TOTAL TIME, then your basic will be raised to RM4,200 per month. Again, HR sometimes would try to dilly dally on this matter of upgrading your pay even after you've reached the required total hours.

Edited June 29, 2011 by David Mehra

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Does MASwings has their own HR department or it is the same HR department for the parent company that we are referring to here?

[David Mehra 0]

Azizul Ramli : MASWings now have our own HR (actually it is called Human Capital Department = HC), mainly in Kota Kinabalu, and also in Kuching at this moment.

 

Although we have our own HR department, most of these guys were sent from the parent company.

 

 

 

guys, do ask anything you wish to know about the company as there is just too much to type here in random. i will try my best to answer any of your questions regarding the company.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Does MASwings reported a profit for FY2010?

 

Do you happen to know how much is the government's allocation for MASwings operation (to operate the rural areas) in 2010 (maybe not an exact figure, but an estimation will suffice)?

 

What's your opinion of the new CEO (of MASwings)?

[David Mehra 0]

If i can recall correctly, MASWings did announce some small profit for FY2010. But the lines are very very blur when it comes to fact and figures of our operating costs over here in MASWings.

 

for instance, our HR & Management proudly announced in public that we have 1300++ employees in maswings, where the fact is our Staff numbers does not exceed 500 (staff number starts with 8000001 to 80004XX now) so i am not sure whether MASWings is paying for ALL OF THE MAS GROUND CREW IN BORNEO'S SALARY aswell.

 

i mean, if the figures are off by maybe 20 to 50 persons, we can understand. But 1300 staff is wayyy off from the actual less than 500.

 

so we might be carrying "dead wood" for our parent company (since MASWings receives the State Government Subsidy!), i suspect this is the case. Parent company takes advantage to dump all their expenses over in Borneo to MASWing's account since it is the government's money anyway.

 

logically thinking, maswings only operated 14 aircrafts (10 ATR72, 4 Twin Otters), does it really make sense that we have an average of 93 staff (1300 staffs divide by 14 planes) to run 1 aircraft?

 

lets take a look, 2 pilots, 2 cabin crews, let's say 5 ground handlers, 1 engineer, 1 technician, 3 dispatch staff, 5 airport operations personnel. That's only 20 workers needed. Lets say we count all the misc personnel, they cant even double to 40 staff per aircraft.

 

but we are talking about 93 staff per aircraft? it would be a miracle to be making money with this amount of staff running such little service.

 

as for your second question, again i am not really sure but i think it is somewhere between 5 to 10 million a year (i might be wayyy off on this figure aswell), but it is revised yearly based on performance.

 

lastly my opinion on our new MD? (Dato' Capt Nawawi), so far i have not seen the anything negative but progress is coming in too slow. But at least the new MD seems to listen to what the general has to say, instead of dismissing every single word like the last MD.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Many thanks for your insider news!

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

for instance, our HR & Management proudly announced in public that we have 1300++ employees in maswings, where the fact is our Staff numbers does not exceed 500 (staff number starts with 8000001 to 80004XX now) so i am not sure whether MASWings is paying for ALL OF THE MAS GROUND CREW IN BORNEO'S SALARY aswell.

 

Does the 500 staff include staff members in KL?

[GeO 0]

Eventhough I didnt manage to get thru the MASwings exam, can I try submit my resume again?

[khair 0]

Maswings used to be a nice place to work, but everything changed when the notorious HR was given too much authority by the former infamous MD. working enviroment deteriorated tremendously when all the pilots are not paid accordingly to the market rate, alot of empty promises been given by the infamous head of flt ops. He is known to favour his sidekick all the time and neglected the rest. Lately we are not allowed to cross jump to firefly, thanks to our head of flt ops. dont come here unless you are jobless now

[Aaron Goh 1]

whats the entry requirement for FO to join direct as Cpt on ATR and where r the bases for ATRs

[N Azman 0]

David,

 

I hope your views do not represent the facts and views of the MASWings management. Those are some serious allegations and assumptions made up there. Can someone from MASWings management verify or rebut the above?

[David Mehra 0]

gentlemens, what i have said in here is well known fact for all of us that has been working for the company since day 1.

 

and if our dear friend Khair here is really who i think he is, take his words because HE IS part of our management.

 

 

as for those asking about resitting the entry test for the FO position, i am not sure what is the procedure, maybe Mr. Khair could help clarify on that matter as i believe he might know a little bit better than me on that.

 

Direct Entry for ATR commanders is at 3500hrs total. two bases for the ATR fleet, in Kinabalu & Kuching.

 

Does the 500 staff include staff members in KL?

 

 

tell me one thing, MASWings does not operate into Semenanjung (KL)

 

MASWings has its own HR division in Kinabalu.

MASWings has its own HR division in Kuching.

 

no operations in semenanjung, no need for "HR" from semenanjung aswell.

 

 

tell us again, why should there be staff members in KL at all?

 

last time, there were some of MAS staffs being "seconded" or being transferred to "maswings division" in MAS just to help out maswings. But now since maswings (supposedly) already have their own HR and everything set up in Kuching & Kinabalu, is there any feasible reason/excuse to have staffs in KL anymore?

[khair 0]

the whole management should be revamped, especially the flt operations and the HR.

[BC Tam 2]

Wasn't MasWings admin based at Miri at inception ?

[David Mehra 0]

BC Tam : yes, during the early days the admin were in Miri, and some were in Subang (these were the "KL staff" that was referred to in the previous post by Suhaimi Fariz).

 

now due to some political (but claimed to be financial) move, everything has been shifted to Kinabalu and Kuching.

[Ganesh.r 0]

Hi David,

 

Is there any talk with in the company to replace the DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 series with the newer 400 series.

Those old birds need to go.

[David Mehra 0]

Ganesh : the old DHC6 needs to be replaced in the next 1-2 years as the airframe is almost up on its maximum cycle limit.

 

there were talks of getting 6 of those series 400, but how far they'll work for it we would have to wait and see.

[Mike P 0]

I hope MasWings could launch their first international routes really soon!

[David Mehra 0]

I hope MasWings could launch their first international routes really soon!

 

 

there were plans of going into Pontianak, Brunei & maybe even Tarakan. I believe the slots were also already put into our aircraft rotation pattern.

 

we have been waiting for the green light from the "higher authorities". once again, politics holding back growth in our lovely culture.

[David Mehra 0]

Latest update on our tech crew situation;

 

10 fresh cadets from flying school has already been selected for the twin otter training.

 

some of the current twin otter co-pilots would be upgraded to the ATR72 fleet, exact figures n date are still to be announced.

 

and for the saucier story ;

 

1 ATR72 captain gave MASWings a 24hour resignation notice, quits the company to join Berjaya Air.

 

1 ATR72 captain gave 2 weeks notice to MASWings, also to be joining Berjaya Air.

 

1 expat ATR72 captain resigned from MASWings, not sure where he is going.

 

all three pilots has yet to finish their 3 years conversion training bond.

 

1 ATR72 copilot rejected the offer for command on the ATR72 with MASWings. After rejecting the offer, he gave a 3 month's notice to the company to quit to join FIREFLY for his right-to-left training.

 

also another ATR72 co-pilot gave a 3 month's notice to resign MASWings and joined FIREFLY as Senior F/O on the ATR72 fleet.

[Delwin A 0]

When is the next recruitment drive for Maswings?

[CH Teo 0]

With over 20 ATR 72 flying in Malaysia now, looks like commanders for this type are having a good choice of working places...

[David Mehra 0]

With over 20 ATR 72 flying in Malaysia now, looks like commanders for this type are having a good choice of working places...

 

 

with 3 companies in Malaysia (MASWings, Firefly & Berjaya Air) using the ATR72 aircraft, type rated tech crews are a hot commodity as companies would just love to get experienced crews for their planes minus the training costs.

 

not just commanders, first officers are also well sought after.

 

and once you have your full ATPL, the scene gets bigger as you can get yourself into Wings Air or Vietnam Airline or even to the Philippines. and these companies pay you in US Dollars.

 

not too shabby for a prop pilot i must say.